Week 16

December 5, 2011

Hi family!! (and other friends that read this)

How is everyone doing? Thanks for all of your emails and letters. I appreciate hearing back from people!

So this has been a pretty good week! Michele was baptized on Saturday!! YAY!! It turned out really well despite all of the craziness that took place that day. I heard that putting together a baptism was a stressful experience and I thought they just didn't know how to plan very well. Well, I am here to say that it is stressful. We had everything beautiful orchestrated out and organized to perfection. Then it started snowing, and snowing, and snowing Saturday morning. It really wasn't that bad but people in the ward were acting like they have never experienced snow before. I was so confused because I thought Nebraskans were tough and were used to weather much worse than what was on Saturday. But anways, as the snow kept falling people were calling and cancelling on us. First a few people with the refreshments called and said they couldn't make it. That's fine, we'll get by without that. Then Michele's ride 20 min before the baptism said they didn't feel comfortable driving and they couldn't pick her up. Then the man baptizing Michele said he was still doing a surgery at the hospital and probably wouldn't be able to make it. (15 min before the baptism.) I was just laughing as all this was happening. It was crazy! All of our plans were falling through because of the snow! But in the end we were able to find Michele a ride and also find a ride for the people who were giving a talk at the baptism. Also, the man who baptized her was able to make it last minute. We also had someone come with refreshments. Phew! Sister Ashby and I held it together pretty well throughout the day. The baptism turned out great though and everything ran smoothly starting 5 min before her baptism. Luckily Michele had no idea what was going on behind the scenes of people canceling. There was still a good amount of people that came to support her, even with the snow and road conditions.

Michele was so happy and excited at her baptism. It was so nice to see her all in white ready to make this commitment with the Lord. Sister Ashby and I even sang a duet! We sang the famous baptism song, "When I am Baptized." I know what you're thinking, "You really sang in front of people?" Yes, I did. Only because I love Michele. I figured if I can sing in the car, shower, or at home I can sing in front of a big group of people at someone's baptism. haha! It turned out pretty well, or so people told us. I also gave a talk on baptism. Everything went really good and there was a special spriit at her baptism. She is amazing and I'm so grateful I've been able to teach her and watch her progress.

Some other experiences this week:

-A few weeks ago a woman had us pray with her that she could have some toilet paper to get her through the rest of the month before her money for the month came. It was so sad that she is just scraping by so tight. We decided we could be the answer to that prayer so we anonymously brought by a few rolls of toilet paper for her. When we went by to see her this week she said she knows it was us and just started bawling saying how grateful she was for us. She was crying and crying about how we are angels and an answer to her prayer. She is such a sweet lady and has a real testimony of God. It was a neat experience and very humbling.

- We give service at the Salvation Army clothing store every week. That's always fun and we meet some really nice people.

-BJ committed to quit smoking yesterday! She's been smoking since she was about 7 so this is a major step for her.

- The weather is getting pretty cold here! The wind is crazy some days and that's the worst part. Earlier this week I had my glasses on and we were walking and every time I breathed it fogged up my glasses and then the wind would clear it up. I had to deal with that all day long because my eye was acting weird the past week. It was pretty funny though. And whenever we walked into some body's house my glasses would fog up again and I would have to take them off and clean them. But I am layering up a lot so the only thing that is exposed is my face. I need to find a stiffer scarf that will stay up and cover my face. We are tough so the weather isn't a huge deal. It's really pretty that snow is everywhere!

Well time to go! Have a great week!! Love you all!

-Sister Jones